As many of our players were conserving their energy for tomorrow’s Dr. David Ostfeld Memorial Championships in Bergen County Academies, today we had 31 participants compete at the Glen Rock Quads. This led to a very relaxed environment before our main event tomorrow.
Ryan Lim, Daniel Shynkarou, Alik Yashayev, and Surya Raghavan all finished the day with a perfect 3/3 points! Out of those players, three came forward to be interviewed.
The first player is Daniel, who won Section 6. It is rare for me to include games in which players lost their queens at the very start of the match. However, that is exactly what happened to Daniel. However, he somehow managed to come back and win by setting up a mating net. His bishops covered the King’s escape squares off the eighth rank, allowing the rook to deliver the killer blow on the back rank.
But before we move onto the next section, Section 6 also featured a grudge match between Fair Lawn rivals Lucas Sokolov and David Sanchez. David won their most recent meeting, after which Lucas claimed without proof David cheated. After a month, they met again in our quads. This time, however, Lucas was up a bishop throughout the match and was able to grab the victory! Unfortunately, that was the only point either of them could get today.
Next up is Alik, who won Section 5. His highlight came in the final match, where we witnessed another comeback. Although his opponent was up a rook, Alik found a fork which cleared a path for his passed pawn. The pawn eventually promoted, giving Alik the victory in the end!
One player that I did not interview is Ansh Shamadasani, who won 2.5/3 games to win Section 4. Like Kahan Shah two weeks ago, Ansh just cannot stop winning! As a result, Ansh was subject to the same treatment as Kahan: after his final match, I paired Ansh with a much stronger player - TD Goktug Bas - to see how he would do. Although Ansh lost, Goktug praised his efforts, even going as far to say he would give me a proper match!
Finally, Surya won all three games in Section 1, meaning he is someone to keep an eye out for in our Race to the ICA Open!
After a Ruy Lopez opening, white played 11. Qd2, which allowed Surya (black) to gain a pawn via a discovered attack. After a large exchange of material, white was left with a terrible pawn structure which Surya could easily break through. Surya went down the route of simplification and was able to get all the minor pieces off the board - whilst remaining up a pawn. Surya was then able to activate the king and pick off all the white pawns on the kingside. From there, despite white’s desperate attempts to create a mating net on the queenside, Surya had too much of an advantage to be able to lose!
Congratulations to all winners: click HERE to view rating reports!
Our next Quads will be held next Saturday, June 10. Click HERE to register!
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